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Legalization of Marijuana

1970
General Resolution

WHEREAS, the present local, state or provincial and federal laws in the
United States and Canada regarding the growing, sale, trade, possession and
consumption of cannibus sativa (marijuana) are based largely on public hysteria
and myth, rather than on any established data about the effects of marijuana on
the user;

WHEREAS, the present laws are making criminals of and causing undue and
unjust punishment to many persons who have no criminal intent in the use of
marijuana;

WHEREAS, the laws relating to marijuana are not uniform or uniformly
enforced, and are being used as political weapons against those people,
especially the young, who dissent in politics or lifestyle from the accepted
norms of the two countries;

WHEREAS, as yet, no reliable research on the effects of marijuana has shown
its use to be as hazardous to the public or the individual user as the use of
tobacco, alcohol or many other stimulants and depressants legally available to
the public;

WHEREAS, the laws relating to marijuana encourage its use in ways both
dangerous to the public and the individual user as did the laws on prohibition
in the United States in the early parts of this century;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: That the 1970 General Assembly of the Unitarian
Universalist Association:

Urges that all local, state or provincial and federal laws in the United
States and Canada making the growing, sale, trade and possession of marijuana a
criminal offense be immediately repealed;

Urges that restrictions on the use of marijuana be made similar to those
laws on the use of alcoholic beverages;

Urges that any effects of the consumption of marijuana that may be found
injurious to the user be handled by the proper psychological and medical care
and not by criminal law;

Urges that amnesty be given to all persons convicted under present laws
relating to the growing, sale, trade, possession and consumption of marijuana
and that charges be dropped against all persons presently under indictment for
violation of such laws;

Urges the federal government of both countries to expand existing research
and to establish the machinery whereby all available findings, statistics, and
observations may be gathered and evaluated to provide an effective study of the
legal, social and medical questions arising from the use of marijuana.